What Prompted TLC to Lose Their ‘CrazySexyCool’ in VH1 Biopic?

Billy Johnson, Jr.

Hip-Hop Media TrainingOctober 19, 2013

There's a scene in the VH1 movie CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story that is reminiscent of the female bank heist film Set It Off.

Upset that they had not been appropriately compensated for the sales of their sophomore album, CrazySexyCool, the members of TLC held hostage Clive Davis, then president of Arista Records, demanding payment.

They stormed the label with a group of female convicts, and confiscated any TLC paraphernalia in site.

The scene is one of the shocking moments in the film premiering on VH1 Monday, Oct. 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

The depiction is based on a true story, members Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas and Tionne "T-Boz" told Yahoo Music Friday in an exclusive video interview in their publicists' office in Hollywood.

"First of all it's funny because people get to see that in the movie, but I personally would have liked it if it would have showed a little bit more of that because that was a serious thing that we went through," Thomas said. "We talked about that."

Late group member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes recruited their tough girl backup from the halfway house where she served five months in 1994 for burning down her ex-boyfriend Andre Rison's million dollar mansion, the surviving members said.

Frustrated with being given conflicting information regarding who controlled their payments, the women sought out the man in charge.

"'Cause we got tired of it," Thomas said. "It's like, 'OK, is it Arista? Is it La Face [Records]? Who is it?' So we go to the top, right on up there to Clive and we really did. We told [the girls] if you see anything that says TLC, I don't care if it's a picture it's ours."

The CrazySexyCool album made $75 million but the three members of TLC were only paid $50,000 each, Watkins told Mo'Nique in 2009.

When their financial disputes lead them to court, they were asked to return some of the items they confiscated from the company offices, Thomas told Yahoo Music.

"When we filed bankruptcy, we were in court, Arista wanted their plaques back, and we said, 'Well, go to the hood. Get it. Good luck with that,'" Thomas said.

"We gave them away to everybody in the projects," Watkins said. "They were so excited."

"So they kinda take that as a loss," Thomas added.

Thomas and Watkins open up about several other aspects of the movie in the three-part interview, including casting Lil Mama as Lopes, KeKe Palmer as Thomas and Drew Sidora as Watkins. Lil Mama's audition impressed them.

"We thought it was going to be harder to find Lisa, but that was the easiest," Watkins said. "Her real eyes are like hazel and she came in with these black, big contacts like Lisa's real eyes, beautiful."

The cast remade many of the videos for their hits, "Waterfalls," "No Scrubs" and "Creep," but it was the recreation of their 1992 debut "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" that impressed them the most.

The movie culled a lot of emotions, some so strong that Thomas and Watkins elected not to come on set for three scenes: an abortion Thomas had at the start of their career, Watkin's Sickle Cell anemia scare, and Lopes' funeral.

"Just going through the script with the ladies, we had to relive it enough just doing that," Watkins said. "Just past the words, we wanted to make them understand the feeling behind each of the scenes, why we were angry or passionate about certain things so they could play better roles."

Thomas and Watkins are definitely passionate about the Ne-Yo produced "Meant To Be," the only new song that appears on the soundtrack.

"Our manager showed [Ne-Yo] the trailer, and he grabbed the word MTB and three days later, he came back and had a song that actually explained our 20 years together in one song," Watkins said. "I had tears in my eyes. I was like OMG. It just took me down the memory lane, and all the pain, the triumph, the struggle."

TLC has also recorded about dozen more songs for a full album due out next year. Lady Gaga wrote one of the tracks. Their longtime producer Dallas Austic revealed the record during a studio session.

"'I have a Gaga song that she sang like TLC that TLC inspired,'" Watkins said, recalling a conversation with Austin. "'[Gaga's] a really big fan. But she didn't want to insult you guys by putting it out.'"

Austin arranged for Gaga and Watkins to meet, resulting in the decision for TLC to record the song, "Posh Life," an acronym for Passionately Only Serving Him. "It's deep," Watkins said.

The other recordings are said to have the TLC sound. "We definitely have a lot of girl power type songs," Watkins said.